Online Video Up 10.5 Percent, CNN, Microsoft, AOL See Gains

In case you were not aware, online video is popular. The number of unique viewers from last month was up 10.5 percent from the previous year, but down slightly from the month before, according to Friday data from Nielsen.

CNN, Microsoft, and AOL saw large gains, though YouTube, Yahoo, and Facebook were the top online brands ranked by unique viewers.

Unique viewers were up from 127.6 million in February 2009 to 141 million in February 2010. That was down 1.1 percent, however, from January 2009. People watched an average of 73 streams per month, up 4.7 percent from last year, but down 5.8 percent from January. Viewers watched about 181.9 minutes of online video each month, up 7.4 percent from last year, and down 3.6 percent from the previous month.

YouTube and Yahoo also saw a drop in viewers month-over-month, down 3.4 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively. At number three, Facebook saw 4.7 percent growth from January to February.

Properties that saw the biggest jump, however, were CNN with 30.6 percent month-over-month growth, MSN/Windows Live/Bing with 21.4 percent, and AOL Media Network with a 17 percent increase. CNN landed at number six, MSN at number four, and AOL at number eight, Nielsen said.

Also in the top 10 were Hulu at number five with about 14 million unique viewers in February, down about 7.4 percent from the previous month. Fox Interactive Media, which includes MySpace, came in at number seven and was down 1.2 percent. ESPN Digital Network and CBS Entertainment Network rounded out the top 10, with ESPN down 17.5 percent and CBS up 4.3 percent month-over-month.

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